CHESTNUT. 



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Family: AMENTACEAE. [Translator's note: now FAGACEAE]. 



Reproductive system: MONCECY, POLYANDRY. 



The cultivated chestnut tree, Castanea vesca, WILLI). [Translator's note: now 

 Castanea sativa], is one of the large trees of our oldest forests. Its trunk grows to an 

 extraordinary size. One on Mt. Etna, for example, is about fifty feet in circumference. 

 The leaves are oblong, pointed, and have serrate teeth that are set apart. The male flowers 

 and the hermaphroditic flowers are separate on the same plant. The male flowers form 

 very long, cylindrical yellow catkins. The flower has a calyx in six sections and twelve to 

 twenty stamens. Two or three hermaphroditic flowers combine in an involucre of four 

 sections bristling with branching spines. Their calyx has five or six sections and is 

 situated on top of the ovary. The stamens are sterile and are concealed inside a thick 

 cottony material. There are six cartilagenous styles. The ovary is inferior. It has six 

 compartments with two ovules in each. The fruit is a pointed nut without valves and 

 contains one or two seeds. 



FLOWERS: in July and August. 



RANGE: France and Europe. 



NOMENCLATURE. Castanea, because the tree appears to originate to have come 

 from the region of the town of Kastanea in Thessaly, located near the Pineos river. 

 German, der kastanienbaum, kestenbaum. English, chestnut-tree. Spanish, castano. 

 Russian, keschtan. Polish, kasztan owoc. Hungarian, gestenye-fa. Chinese, lie tsu. 



USES. The wood of the chestnut tree is very useful in civil construction. It's 

 supple, heavy, and resilient. It makes very durable joists, beams and rafters. 



